Alok Industries, country’s largest textile major is planning to exit its retail ventures, despite the fact that global brands are setting sights on lucrative Indian retail. It is looking at exiting its five-year old apparel retail business, ‘H&A’ and 200-store strong ‘Store Twenty One’, a UK-based retail chain owned by the company.
Largest integrated textiles player has decided to take this step in order to concentrate on core business and reduce debt burden from non-core businesses. The company had a debt burden of Rs 16,000 crore as on March 2012 and debt equity of 4.6:1. It has also sold its real estate assets at the Peninsula Business Park in Lower Parel for Rs 1030 crore, to reduce debt.
Alok has evolved from a small trading business into India’s largest integrated textiles player. It is present across the textile value chain - from yarn manufacturing to garmenting. Alok’s production facilities are in Silvassa, Vapi and Navi Mumbai. The company also has a presence in the domestic retail segment and in real estate through a wholly-owned subsidiary.
